He's Awake
by paleowriter
Summary: Fitz wakes up. No memory loss, nothing traumatic...this fandom needs a fluffier post-finale fic. FitzSimmons-focused, but not necessarily romantic. Two-parter.
1. Part 1

I don't own Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.

My last one-shot was all about Fitz being unconscious. I wanted to try one where he wasn't. I also wanted to explore more of what Simmons felt for Fitz. Of course, I found I couldn't do all this in a one-shot, so this is a two-parter.

* * *

**He's Awake**

Part 1

With Skye at her side, Jemma Simmons ran down the concrete hallway.

_"Welcome back!" Billy Koenig said as they disembarked from their latest mission. "Be sure to pick up your lanyards once you're through the retinal scanners. They've been kept for you, just through the doors to the left—"_

_ "Thanks, as always, for your thoroughness, Agent Koenig, but I think we know the drill by now," Director Coulson said, cutting off the rambling instructions they'd all heard half a dozen times in the last couple weeks._

Skye and Simmons raced through the tunnels, slamming their way through every door in their path.

_"How is he?" Simmons asked Billy once she'd walked down the gangplank from the Bus. May and Triplett followed Coulson, but Skye stayed back._

_ "He?" Billy blinked. "Oh, your little science friend. Right! Yes. He's well. He's awake, actually."_

_ "He's WHAT?" Skye gaped. She and Simmons exchanged a glance. _

_ Then they took off running._

"Simmons," Skye said as they reached the hospital wing. "He's been comatose. You're the medical guru here, so you know that even though he's awake, he still might be—"

"I _know_, Skye," Jemma said. She didn't mean for her voice to sound rude, but it definitely came out that way. "I know," she repeated, a bit softer. "And thank you. For your concern, for…for everything."

Skye smiled and squeezed Jemma's shoulder. A doctor passed them, telling them they were welcome to enter the chamber they'd stopped in front of. Skye let go of Simmons and opened up Fitz's hospital room door.

Jemma braced herself as it swung open. There, under the bright hospital lights, sat Fitz, awake and working on a tablet he held with his right hand. He looked up from it and his mouth fell open.

"Jemma," he said. On the second syllable of her name, a smile spread across his face.

From the doorway, Jemma made a small noise in her throat. She was rooted to the floor, her eyes dampening by the second.

"And Skye," Fitz said, as Skye leaned around Jemma to wave. "Glad to see you made it through everything."

"You're one to talk," Skye said, smiling. She took a step forward, but then stopped herself, letting Jemma get first dibs on hugs.

"Oh, _Fitz_," Jemma finally managed to say. She walked over to the bed, sat down, threw her arms around Fitz's shoulders, and squeezed him into a hug that could rival the gravity between the Earth and the moon. "You're _awake_. How are you doing? Are you okay? What was the last report your doctors gave you? Do you need anything?" Each question stumbled over the last.

"Hey, hey." Fitz hugged her back with his right arm, shushing her gently. "I'm okay. It's okay."

Jemma leaned back, wiped at her eyes, and then promptly pulled Fitz in again for another giant hug. "You scared me so much," she whispered. "Fitz…I thought you were dead for sure, and then you weren't, and then you were in a coma instead..."

Instead of replying out loud, Fitz just held her tighter. The two of them stayed like that for several moments, and only pulled apart reluctantly after Fitz looked up and saw that Skye was still patiently waiting her turn.

"Try not to pull stunts like this too often, okay?" Skye said, taking her chance to hug Fitz. "You scared all of us. Not just Simmons."

"Yeah. Uh…sorry," Fitz said as they separated.

Skye pushed his shoulder a little as he shifted his left arm to a more comfortable position in its sling. "Hey, don't apologize," she said. "Just try not to make a habit of almost dying. Trust me, it's not fun."

That got a smile out of Fitz and a wry laugh out of Jemma.

"Speaking of," Fitz said next, looking at Jemma and narrowing his eyes. "How _did_ I live through that? The doctors here couldn't tell me."

"Simmons totally saved you." Skye beamed at Jemma. "She dragged you up from the bottom of the ocean, like some sort of she-Hulk."

"Skye, I told you, Fitz saved _me_," Jemma protested from where she sat on the other side of the hospital bed.

"Okay, whatever, so you saved each other," Skye amended.

Meanwhile, Fitz's eyes flashed with about ten dozen different emotions. "Jemma!" he exclaimed. "You could've died doing that! Seriously, weren't you even listening? I told you what you had to do to get out—"

"You told me how to save _myself_," Jemma interrupted, wiping away a tear with her palm before balling her hands into fists. "But in all of your rigging and mathematics, you forgot to calculate how to save _yourself!_"

Fitz stared at her like she had just dropped a hundred IQ points. "Um, that wasn't the point, that wasn't important—"

"That's ALWAYS important!" Jemma's fists trembled. "How could that not be important?! And you wouldn't even let us talk it over, you just blew the side in—"

"What? I—" Fitz blustered. "—Oh, come on, we were running out of time—"

"And who gave you permission to be in charge of how we spent it?"

"You _know _why I did what I did, Jemma!" Fitz's entire expression was pained. Lines creased on his forehead.

"_Yes,_ and you never even gave me a chance to properly respond to what you—!" Jemma cut herself off, glancing at Skye with widening eyes. "I…I mean…" she stammered, throwing her hands over her mouth. "Oh, I should really shut up now."

Skye blinked at them—the first actual motion out of her in a considerable while. "You know, this sounds like a conversation the two of you need to have on your own," she said. "How about I wait outside? I'll let the team know you're okay…or…something."

Before FitzSimmons could reply, Skye scooted out of the room, shutting the door.

Fitz and Jemma looked back at each other, and it was impossible to say who looked more panicked.

* * *

_Part 2 coming soon!_


	2. Part 2

And here's part 2! Still don't own Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Though I wish I did, so I could make this actually happen in the show.

* * *

**He's Awake**

Part 2

"How is he?" Coulson asked. The team stood outside the hospital room with Skye. She'd advised them that now wasn't the best time to go in, so they instead found themselves having an impromptu pow-wow about the entire "situation" out in the hallway.

"He's sitting up, talking...overall seems pretty good to me." Skye shrugged. "Though he might not be after Simmons gets through with him." She added that last bit as a mumble, but made it loud enough for everyone to hear.

"Are there going to be lingering issues? Will he be able to get back to work soon?" May asked next, ignoring the second half of what Skye said.

Skye shifted where she stood, trying to peer in through the small window on Fitz's door. "We didn't really talk much about what's wrong with him. But seriously, he really seems okay. Surprisingly okay."

"I'm impressed. The doctors last said they didn't expect full cognitive recovery when he woke up," Triplett said, crossing his arms as he looked through the window with Skye. "But would you look at him in there, showing them he can do better than that."

"So are we going to stand here, or are we going in to see him?" May asked. "Because while I'm glad he's awake, I do have other things I could be doing."

Skye and Triplett had their faces practically smooshed against the glass of the window.

"Still not sure now's the best time," Skye said, on her tiptoes.

"Nope, probably not," Triplett agreed.

"Definitely not," Skye said with a grin.

"Those two need a moment." Triplett nodded.

"And _you_ two really know how to make a person curious," Coulson said, awkwardly trying to edge in between his two agents to get his own look. "You know, maybe we should just let them be."

"You're just saying that so we back away and you can get to the window." Skye smirked.

Behind them all, May just shook her head, then turned and walked back down the hall. Not a single member of the team saw the tiny smile play across her face.

* * *

There was at least an entire minute of silence after Skye left. Jemma and Fitz both tried to say things, but neither could get any words out.

Unable to take much more of the awkwardness, Jemma eventually stood up and began poking at Fitz's monitors. "It's fascinating that you managed to pull through after all this time. When did you wake up?" she asked, steering the conversation towards something she could handle. Facts. Science. Biological responses.

"A couple of days ago," Fitz replied, sounding just as relieved as she was to have their conversation refocused. "They told me you were okay, but away on a mission. Told me about Coulson being Director. Not much else, though." He paused. "Um…though on that note…so I know Garrett's dead, but what about—?"

"Ward's locked up," Jemma said. "He was brought in by May." She stopped her scan of the hospital equipment to glance back at Fitz.

Fitz looked down at his tablet. "Then I'm guessing he wasn't brought in in one piece."

"Well, I didn't see him personally, but from what I heard…it wasn't pretty," Jemma replied, watching Fitz carefully.

"Good," Fitz said, to Jemma's surprise. His eyes stayed downcast. "He doesn't deserve any better. Not after what he did."

"Fitz…" Jemma began, sitting back down the bed. She put a hand on his good hand, and his eyes drifted over to where she touched him. "I wish he'd been a better person. For your sake," she said. "He let us all down, but you were the only one who didn't give up on him."

Fitz curled his hand into a fist, and Jemma gripped it tight. He looked up at her. "I just—I still can't believe—he _knew. _He knew I trusted him, he knew how I felt about you, he _knew_ and he still did what he did. And for that, I don't know if I'll ever be able to forgive him."

"Fitz…"

"You could have died, Jemma!" His voice caught in his throat. "And you almost did."

"But I didn't, thanks to you." Jemma forcibly uncurled his fist and laced her fingers in with his. "You saved me. And now we can forget about Ward, and Hydra, and that whole mess. We're together now, and that's what matters."

She smiled, and he smiled with her.

"Yeah," Fitz said. "Yeah, I guess you're right."

They sat looking at each other for a few moments, until Jemma cleared her throat and broke eye contact. "Now…um…not to make this awkward again, but we really should talk. You know. About what you said. About…how you felt."

"Feel," Fitz corrected, swallowing. She could feel his palm dampen against hers. "And please, I don't want you to feel pressured or anything. Yes, it's true I—I love you."

Jemma's eyes softened, looking tentatively back towards the engineer.

"There. I said it. But I don't expect anything like this back from you," Fitz pressed on. "I just…had to let you know before…well, before time was going to be up for me. But now—"

"Fitz—"

"Now, I just want things to be normal again," he said, his voice determined. "For us, for everyone. I know things have changed, but I don't want to have things changed for the worse—"

"_Fitz_—"

"I couldn't live with myself if I'd known how I felt would hurt you at all. After all, you have so much to offer the world, and I'd hate to get in the way of any of that—"

"You're doing it again," Jemma cut him off, her eyes locking on his. "Just like when we were trapped. Would you just give me a second to respond, and stop assuming I don't feel strongly for you as well?"

That shut Fitz up. His face turned red, contrasting against the white linen bed sheets surrounding them.

"Thank you," Jemma said after a moment of genuine silence. "Now…I've had time to think about things, obviously, with you being comatose for weeks and all."

She reached forward, setting her other hand on top of the two they had currently intertwined. Fitz stared at her, his eyes intense and unwilling to shut, even just to blink.

"And I wish that made this any easier, but to be perfectly honest…" Jemma furrowed her eyebrows, now avoiding his gaze. "Fitz, I don't know. I…you're everything to me. I do love you. The problem is that I don't know what that _means._" Her hands shook against his, trembling more violently with every word she said. "I don't know if it's a romantic love, or what it is, because for so long you've been my friend—my best friend—and no one could ever take that place in my heart other than you. But is that what love is?" she rambled, "I honestly don't know. Which is _terrifying._"

Her whole body shook now, and she clung to Fitz's hands as if he would disappear any moment in front of her.

"Jemma," Fitz said. "Jemma, hey. Look at me." He extracted his hand to tip her chin up, forcing eye contact. Once her eyes managed to meet his, he gave her a small smile. "Having you as a friend is more than I could have ever hoped for." His smile broadened knowingly. "Yes, even more than a pet monkey."

That forth a new set of unexpected tears from Jemma, and she threw her arms around him. Startled, Fitz held her as steadily as possible while she wrinkled his shirt between her fingers.

"I just don't want you to think I don't care," Jemma cried into his shoulder as he rocked her gently. "Because I do. More than anything. And maybe that does make this romantic. I don't know, I'm not good with feelings, Fitz, I'm not good with these normal people things. We've always just had each other, and that's meant the world to me."

"And it means the world to me, too," Fitz said. "That's all I want, Jemma. I just want us to have each other. If we can have that, I can die happy."

"Don't you dare," Jemma warned, pulling back to glare at him. "I almost lost you already. No more impromptu self-sacrificing acts, promise?"

Fitz raised his eyebrows. "As long as I can get the same promise out of you, Miss Skydiver."

Jemma laughed, wiping tears off her cheeks. They held each other at arm's length, watching each other and both smiling faintly at the fact that they _were _both alive, and that they were together.

Then Jemma leaned in for another hug, kissing Fitz on the forehead as she did so. She could feel his shoulders sigh as she held him, and he turned to place a light kiss on her cheek. After a moment, Fitz leaned back, pulling Jemma along, and they lay cuddling on the hospital bed.

Alive, and together.

* * *

"Do you think Fitz is really okay?" Skye asked, sitting in the hallway outside the hospital room with Triplett long after Coulson had left.

"If he isn't, he will be," Triplett said. His elbows rested on his knees. "He's got the best doctor in the world looking out for him."

"Well, Simmons isn't technically a medical doctor," Skye reminded him, picking her phone up off the linoleum floor.

"No, she's better than a medical doctor," Triplett said. A small sigh escaped him. "He's real lucky. And you know what?" he asked, smiling. "I think he knows it."


End file.
